a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a hair cosmetic composition which has good spreadability, permits easy application to hair, and provides an excellent feeling of use.
b) Description of the Related Art
A hair cosmetic composition is generally added with one or more of various thickening agents with a view to improving the ease in application by preventing running-down and further to reducing irritation to the skin. Employed as such thickening agents are, for example, natural polymers such as xanthan gum and guar gum, semisynthetic polymers such as methylcellulose and ethylcellulose, and synthetic polymers such as polyvinyl alcohol and polyethylene oxide.
Among these, xanthan gum is widely used because it is hardly affected by pH, temperature and the like and exhibits good thickening effect.
Hair cosmetic compositions which contain xanthan gum are however accompanied by the problem that, when they are taken out of bottoms upon use, they become a lump and show poor spreadability, they cannot be easily applied to hair, and the feeling of use is hence significantly impaired. Further, xanthan gum fails to bring about sufficient thickening effect in systems which contain a salt and a solvent at high concentrations.
To cope with the above-described problem, U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,077 discloses that xanthan gum etherified with an alkylene oxide is usable as a thickening agent. This etherified xanthan gum is described in the U.S. patent to be useful for obtaining an alcohol-base high-viscosity gel, but the U.S. patent has no disclosure whatsoever as to whether it would show sufficient thickening effect in other systems.
Among hair cosmetic compositions, hair dye compositions, hair setting compositions, permanent wave compositions and the like generally contain a salt and a solvent at high concentrations. It has therefore been desired to develop a component which can exhibit sufficient thickening effects in these systems.